New York Crimes
People accused of crimes in New York and their families are often unclear about what the charges are, or even if they are informed of the charges are unclear as to what they mean. The information here will:
- help you put the name of the crime to a penal law section number you may have heard
- help you find the penal law section number from the name of the crime
- help you get a sense of the seriousness of the crime by the offense level
- help you to get a very general sense of the potential sentences or punishments for the crime charged
New York Crimes Information
Somewhere in the process you might have heard a reference to a Penal Law Section number or the name of the crime in question.
Penal Law Section numbers are usually 3 digit numbers followed by a decimal and then usually a 2 digit number (for example, 000.00). The following link will take you to a list of crimes in numerical order by New York Penal Code. Simply follow the numbers and you will find the charge.
Somewhere in the arrest process you might have heard someone mention a particular crime but you may be unsure about its seriousness. The link below will take you to a list of New York Crimes that will also give you an idea of the seriousness by providing the offense level.
View a List of New York Crimes . (This will come up in a new window. The list is in alphabetical order. If you only know the Penal Law Code number, use your browser's search text feature to search for the code number on the page.)
New York Crimes by Offense Level
If you are interested in seeing lists of crimes by their specific offense levels, click on an offense level below.
- A1 Felonies
- A2 Felonies
- B violent felonies
- B non-violent felonies
- C violent felonies
- C non-violent felonies
- D violent felonies
- D non-violent felonies
- E felonies
- A misdemeanors
- B misdemeanors
- Violations
Calculating Potential Sentences in New York State
Once you have the OFFENSE LEVEL of the crime you are interested in finding out about, follow the link below to be taken to a New York State sentencing chart you can use to get a ROUGH idea of what the potential sentence might be.
PLEASE be aware that by clicking on the link below you are agreeing that you understand that sentencing guidelines are more complicated than what is presented on the web here. You promise not to make any decision in a real criminal case based on this rough sentencing chart before you have confirmed its accuracy with a real live human New York criminal defense lawyer. The sentencing information provided here is meant to help you begin to understand a more complicated process. It is by no means meant to be considered a definitive answer. At 3:00 AM it will be better than the likely answer you will get from most lawyers' answering services, but it should not be the sole basis upon which any real decision is made in a criminal case.